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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27822226">There in the dark</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarPlumStan/pseuds/SugarPlumStan'>SugarPlumStan</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Not Beta Read, no dialog</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:33:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,170</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27822226</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarPlumStan/pseuds/SugarPlumStan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When was it that Harley finally falls in love with Peter?  There are so many reasons to, so what is it that finally dips him into loves embrace?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harley Keener/Peter Parker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>64</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>There in the dark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harley Keener knew what he liked in a significant other.  He knew what he was attracted to physically.  He knew that soft brown hair that curled and begged for fingers to run through it left him weak.  He knew bright smiles that began from the eyes drew him in like nothing else.  Don’t get Harley started about eyes.  He had very strong feelings about them.  Specifically, he had strong feelings about brown eyes.  Harley hated when people said brown eyes were boring.  They weren’t, not in the slightest.  Sure, green eyes were breath taking and you could sink into blue eyes and lose yourself in them.  But brown eyes were special.  You had to see them in the right light, catch them at the right time.  </p>
<p>In sunsets they were honey sweet, dripping with all the work and fervor that spoke endlessly of the intelligence behind them.  Or maybe they were the fiery whiskey Harley used to steal from his mother’s stash.  The one they both knew his Ma used to buy just for him but made no mention of.  Sunrises left them soft, like chocolate. Sweet and ready to melt with the heat of sugared words.  His favorite were the small moments, the ones you could miss if you weren’t watching carefully, that were as bright and sharp as the thorns on the hawthorn trees he grew up with in Tennessee.  Quick sharp wit and a sharper tongue always left brown eyes shining with their own inner light.  It was bewitching.</p>
<p>So when Harley met Peter for the first time and found those sharp stinging eyes smiling at him, he knew immediately that he wanted to take the boy on a date.  It hadn’t been difficult at all to get Peter to say yes, and it threw Harley through multiple loops when he’d gotten that yes without having to work for it at all.   There had never been a time where the attraction he felt was so immediate.  So natural and easy, like it had always been simmering under the surface.  They fell into an easy rhythm after their first date, and Harley could see himself really falling in love with his little Spiderling.  Peter made it so easy that at times, he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around how the boy didn’t have people falling at his feet.</p>
<p>First off, the boy was a damned golden retriever in human form.  Peter was kind to a level Harley had yet to see.  It surpassed even his southern hospitality and it was shocking to see in the beginning.  There was never any anger with anyone.  Hell, Harley was convinced that Peter didn’t even know that anger existed. The only time he’d ever seen anything close were the small moments the brunette grew frustrated at himself.  Peter Parker was also excitable.  It seemed at times that he would jump from one subject to the next with hardly a breath taken in between.   Throw in just how friendly and loyal he was, and it turned the superhero into a human golden retriever.</p>
<p>Second off, Peter was…  gorgeous.  Yes, he had the hair, and he had the smile. (<i>God</i> did he have the smile…) but those were nothing without the eyes in Harley’s opinion.  Those eyes spoke of everything that Peter Parker entailed.  The sharp wit and the intelligence almost never stopped shining, and the small moments Harley caught on rare occasions always took his breathe away.  There were small moments in those small moments that he could swear that, were he able to make them last more than a split second, he would fall in love with Peter Parker just on pure looks alone.  </p>
<p>One such second would stay with Harley for the rest of his life.  It was sunset after a particularly hard day.  Harley had done his best to get Peter to laugh and he didn’t succeed until the sun slipped down past the horizon.  Time slowed to a crawl.  Peter turned his head just in time for the last flash of light to strike a fire in his eyes and that melodical laugh of his only made it magical.  Harley felt his heart stop and he wished, <i>desperately wished</i> he could live in that moment forever.</p>
<p>Third off, he was Spider-man.  Harley got to watch his boyfriend save their city practically every night.   He got to listen to all the praise the city laid on the boy that he was allowed to kiss every day.  He got to know who was under the mask and it thrilled him every time he heard conversations about who he could possibly be.  It was the best secret he’d ever had, and he got to share it with his best friend.  It didn’t hurt that Peter looked <i>amazing</i> in his suit, and Harley very unashamedly ogled every chance he got.</p>
<p>All of this would be enough to make Harley fall in love with Peter.  Unbelievably, that’s not what tipped him over into devotion.  He had all the reasons in the world to be swept off his feet and it was frustrating that Harley couldn’t say he was in love.  He loved Peter, sure.  Obviously and absolutely.  But he wasn’t quite <i>in</i> love yet.  He was half sure it was because of his trust issues.  Maybe it was because every time he’d tried to get close to someone in the past, it came back to bite him in the ass. Maybe it was the anxiety he always felt coming off Peter in waves.  Harley was sure he was the cause of the anxiety and maybe he was holding back because of it.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until Peter came crashing into his room after a disastrous patrol did he tip over that line.  1am and woken from a dead sleep to hold a sobbing Peter in his arms.  Something about an apartment fire and a little girl. Harley stayed awake the rest of that night, keeping true to his promise to watch over the spiderling as he slept to keep the nightmares away.  There in the dark was where Harley found his devotion.  It was in the trust built between them and the blind need in Peter to be close to Harley.  It was in the red nose and tear stained cheeks left behind, and the sheer comfort he displayed at sobbing shamelessly into Harley’s arms.  </p>
<p>It was the blatant display of trust that Peter could go to him and rely on him to hold him at his lowest moments that made Harley Keener fall in love with Peter Parker.  He could have gone to anyone, but he chose Harley and that… that was what made Harley fall.  Peter had chosen him, unconsciously, when his distress and anguish had been at its highest. No one had ever needed him on that level before and it was there, in the dark with snot all over his shirt and an aching painful soul that Harley found himself needing Peter and wanting Peter for the rest of his life.</p>
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